Saturday, July 29, 2017

EAT YOUR WEEDS!

My aerobics teacher, Reme, came into morning gym class with bags of weeds, offering them to anyone willing to try. “Verdolaga,” she said. “It grows wild in my garden. I use the leaves in salads.” I pulled one of the glossy leaves off a stem and tasted. A little tart, nice.

“Do you use it in traditional cooking?” I asked. “No, not really. People feed it to the animals, but don’t cook with it.”

Purslane (verdolaga) is an edible wild green often considered a weed. (Photo by Reme Valenzuela.)

An on-line search revealed that verdolaga is purslane, a weed, an herb, a wild green. It’s used in Greek and Middle Eastern cooking, one of many wild herbs used in salads and cooked dishes. The Mexicans favor it, braised with pork or chicken in a green chile sauce with tomatillos.

In a cookbook from the Valencia region I discovered a recipe with purslane, in "ensaladas de los frailes"—the monks’ salad. It calls for three kinds of wild greens, verdolagues tenders (tender purslane), camarroges (bitter wild chicory) and lletsons (cerraja in castellano; sow thistle in English) mixed with canned tuna, black cuquello olives, olive oil, black pepper and salt.

I also discovered that verdolaga, common purslane (portulaca oleracea) is a real superfood, rich in anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals and amazingly high in heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acid. A purslane salad and a heap of sardines (also rich in Omega-3) would be a real heart-protective meal. Eat your weeds, kids!

Both leaves and stems of purslane are edible.

Pinch off leaves to use in salads. They are glossy on the top side, quite fleshy.

Wild purslane grows in lawns, along roadsides, in fields. It should be picked from places where it’s not subject to pollution or pesticides. (Hey, it’s growing in my garden too!) It may turn up at farmers’ markets too, as it seems to be trending. Stems, leaves and yellow flowers are edible. Place in a bowl of water and swish them around. Drain. They can be used raw or cooked. I used the leaves in a salad, combining them with watermelon, cucumber and feta cheese. I made a traditional vegetable dish, called zarangollo, cooking purslane with the vegetables.

Purslane leaves add a mild citric taste to a salad of watermelon and cucumber.

Chopped purslane cooks with potatoes and zucchini in zarangollo, a Murcia dish.

The salt in the dressing draws the liquid out of the watermelon and cucumber. Either add the salt, oil and lemon juice to the salad immediately before serving. Or, mix it all together and refrigerate. When ready to serve, use a slotted spoon to scoop the salad out of the accumulated juices.

Zarangollo is a popular dish in the Murcia region (eastern Spain). It usually consists of zucchini and potatoes cooked with onions in olive oil and scrambled with eggs. It´s served as a tapa or light supper dish. This version has wild purslane added to the vegetables.

2 comments:

Hi! American living in South Eastern Spain here. Stumbled across your blog while looking for ideas for all these weeds taking over my gravel around my newly purchased finca. I don't want to use weedkiller like the previous owner did as I have lots of pets and picking them all was easy until the rain came...now I'm over run with weeds. I have loads of purslane but lots of others too. I'd love to connect with you on WhatsApp maybe we can share stories, adventures, photos of our weeds and plants and recipes. I have a small veg garden too. Thanks for keeping this blog. I'm going to try your recipes this week. Lynnea